Took this one from a Generous Savings blog.......
I did one of these money makers last week and my husband was amazed  ;-)
Hop on the money saving train with me, why don't you!

Coupon Class Tip: How to get FREE MILK…..

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Steph

 

…..or free produce or something else free that you want….

So, I wanted to break some things down for you and help you see how you can save and get even things like a gallon of milk for free!

In my coupon classes I recommend that you save all your coupons. Why?  Well, what if that coupon for that product that you don’t use would help you make a few bucks?

How is that possible you might ask..

Well, sometimes, there are amazing rewards deals or catalina deals at your local store.  This means that when you buy x you get a coupon for a certain amount of money off of your next purchase of anything in the store. Many times, when you add a coupon into this rewards deal, you can make it a freebie or a money-maker
Even if you don’t get coupons, there are times when you can print a coupon to make a deal a money-maker
AND even if you don’t use coupons at all, sometimes, there are just amazing deals that are a money maker all on their own

I want to break down 2 examples of these money-makers and how it can get you free milk.

These deals happened just this week.  Deals like this don’t happen all the time, but they do happen frequently, and I love to feature them on Generous Savings.

This week at Rite Aid there was this deal:
Buy 2 Jergens Ultra Healing Lotion 1 oz. -$0.79 each (bogo50%)
Pay $1.26 (includes tax)
Get a $3 +Up Reward when you buy 2 (limit 2)
FREE + $1.74 moneymaker!

You were allowed to do this deal twice, which  means you could have walked away with 4 little lotions and the store paying you $3.48!!  Yes, you read me right.  The store paid you to take them out of the store!
Now the store, wants you to forget about your +UP rewards or buy something expensive overpriced item that you don’t need with those rewards.

What do I want you to do?  Well, you can either a) save them for next week when you buy more items that will trigger +UP rewards or b) go buy an item you need that you don’t have coupons for with them, like MILK!!!

Here is another deal that occurred at Shoprite this week (this catalina deal is good through 7/8):
Buy 3 Kikkoman meat marinade packets 3/$2
use 3 $1/1 Kikkoman Marinade or $0.50/1 Kikkoman Marinades, pg. 85 All You, May 2012 (exp 10/31/2012) or $1/1 Kikkoman Marinade
pay 0
get $2 catalina
Free + $2 money maker after coupons and catalina!

Now, if you did the money-maker deal twice, you would have $4 in catalina’s!  Enough to buy a gallon of milk!  How cool is that?

You could also use those catalina’s on produce and get free broccoli or even free organic produce!
So, sometimes, it takes a little creative thinking to figure out how to save on essentials like produce (even organic produce) and milk, but it IS possible to save on such things!

Even if you are not a die hard couponer, you could do a money-maker deal or two each week and save a few bucks.  If you were able to do 1 $3 money maker deal a week, that would be $156 you saved in 1 year! (plus all the free stuff you got).

So, who could use some free milk or extra money?

If you have any questions, or need any help understanding the deals, please don’t hesitate to ask a question in the comments!

Stay tuned to Generous Savings and the freebies tab for more great deals like this!
Remember, even if you don’t use these money-maker items, you can donate them to someone who will use them!

Leah's Response, Donations, iMentor & more.....

I just received an email from my mentee and while she has many obstacles to overcome in life, she reminds me a lot of myself in where she is determined to succeed no matter what.  She previously told me that she had an argument with her dad two years ago, where he was treating her like something she was not.  She was upset and hung up on him…..and has not heard from him since.  So, some of her email is in response to that because she is very hurt about the situation, but her pride is keeping her from making the first move and contacting him.  Anyways, I thought her email was inspiring and wanted to share it.  J 

For those who care to help, she was accepted into a leadership program at Brown University for the summer and needed help affording it.  A link to her fundraising site is: http://wishbone.org/students/view/17

Also, if you live and/or work in New York, consider becoming a mentor through the iMentor program, which matches college-educated mentors with high school students in low-income communities in New York City to help them graduate ready for college. To learn more about the program, visit their website at http://www.imentor.org/about-imentor

If you’d like to sign up now, please complete iMentor’s online application and then iMentor will invite you to attend a helpful mentor training session. It’s a great opportunity to meet other interesting and like-minded professionals who are also becoming mentors.

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Hi Faunya,

I'm really glad that you can come! I believe the show starts around 5 ish so you wont miss much. Things with Brown are going great so far. I found out a couple of days ago that I was fully funded for the entire trip! That is a big stress off of my shoulders. I am really looking forward to those two weeks. Also, about the situation with my dad, his current girlfriend actually has a problem with my mom and I. I've never seen before, and I kinda don't want to because in reality, she is very rude to my mom and there's just a whole bunch of problems there. However, the mother of my sister has always taken care of me and has always been respectful and I would call her but I also haven't talked to her in two years and I wouldn't really know what to say. It is my dad's birthday on Friday so i'm thinking of sending him a card just to wish him a happy birthday. I hope this problem gets resolved before senior year. I don't want him to miss out on important college stuff. I think that both of my parents should be present for that.

Speaking about the topic, I think that self-advocacy is very important especially for a young adult. High school is the time when a teen figures out who they are and what they want to accomplish in life. It is also the time when the teenager gets the most freedom. There is no longer a teacher telling them to stand straight in line on their way to their next class. In highschool, it is their responsibilty to get themselves to the places they need to be. If they don't speak for themselves, one, college will be extremely hard for them, and two, they won't get the opporutnities other students will get. For example, if I hadn't looked up Brown for myself, I probably would have never found out about the program and I would probably be doing nothing this summer. High school is when a person begins to mold their life. This is probably the most important stepping stone in life. Important people come to my school all of the tis my responsibility alone to present myself in the best way possible to begin making myself stand out. No one is going to hand me a full-ride scholarship for no reason. I have to earn it. I have to go out and do my research, schedule interviews, write papers and do everything possible to make sure that I am fulfilling my own needs. Tomorrow, representatives from the POSSE program are coming to talk to us at lunch. I have to make sure that I am being charismatic, catching their attention, advoacating myself and telling them all of the good things I can offer so that I can be nominated for that scholarship. It is important for every young adult to realize that neither our parents nor our teachers are going to sign us up for things that will get us ready for college and after college, we have to do it ourselves.

I am shy around people I don't know, but when my future is in question, I suck it up and put that all away becasue I refuse to let that jepardize my future. So, tomorrow, I am going to be as outgoing as possible because personality and character is something the POSSE program looks for. I am not going to act shy at first becasue theres a chance I won't know them long enough for them to get to know the real me.

I am really excited for the June barbeque. Although it is going to be a busy day, I will get to see you! Also, I am happy that you're coming to the musical!  See you on thursday!

Regards, Leah.

Too sexy, too laid back, too independent... Why some women just AREN'T marriage material

So, I came across the below article and knew I HAD to post it.  The topic of dating and dating that leads to marriage comes up constantly in conversations with both family and friends.  I recently asked my husband what it was about me that attracted him to be 1) my boyfriend and 2) my husband 3 1/2 years later.....and I must say that some of the things written in this adds up.  Also, I look at the other married couples that I know of......same thing.  Hmm....maybe they have a point here.  Thoughts?

By Frances Childs
21 November 2011

We’ve all heard — or perhaps experienced — a version of this story: man meets woman, they fall in love, date for a while, move in together. They frame photos, arrange them on the walls, pick out furniture, make a nest.

A few years on, marriage is on her mind. But she puts no pressure on him — he’ll ask when he’s ready, right? He doesn’t. She doesn’t push it. The relationship stagnates. Man leaves woman. Man swiftly marries subsequent girlfriend, leaving ex mystified and heartbroken.

This is what happened to Laura Hall, a 34-year-old financial adviser from London. Laura had been living with Douglas for four years when he walked out. ‘I just let the relationship drift on, hoping he’d pop the question in his own time. But he never did. I was devastated when he left.’
 

John Molloy, author of Why Men Marry Some Women And Not Others, says that many women simply do not push hard enough for marriage

And she was even more devastated when she heard he’d proposed to his next girlfriend within a matter of months. But why her and not Laura? Does it mean there are some women who are acceptable as a girlfriend, but not really quite the ticket when it comes to getting hitched?
A recent celebrity example that comes to mind is Pippa Middleton. With her long, luscious hair and legs to die for, Pippa is one of the most eligible women on the planet. The sister-in-law to the future King of England possesses an undeniable sex appeal, not to mention perhaps the most lusted-after derriere in the world.

Yet, according to reports, Pippa’s 18-month romance with Old Etonian Alex Loudon recently ended because his family considered her not quite ‘wife material’ — a phrase guaranteed to make female hackles rise. In this supposedly egalitarian age, is there really such a thing as ‘wife material’?

 Well, yes, according to John Molloy, author of Why Men Marry Some Women And Not Others. Molloy claims there are definite types of women that men marry — and, equally definitely, women they do not.

Molloy interviewed more than 3,500 people in his quest to discover exactly why men pop the question to some of us and not others. When he asked men who were about to be married to describe their fiancees, only 20 per cent said ‘gorgeous’ or ‘sexy’. The others focused on their future wives’ personalities.

According to reports, Pippa Middleton's 18-month romance with Old Etonian Alex Loudon ended because his family considered her not quite 'wife material'

One man summed up his future bride as ‘the kind of woman you can take anywhere and be proud of’ — a sentiment echoed by many other men in the course of Molloy’s research. More than 30 per cent of the men Molloy interviewed who were about to get married said their family’s positive opinion of their future bride had helped them decide she was ‘the one’ — and most parents aren’t looking for an incredibly sexy or very attention-seeking spouse for their son.

There’s another good reason why men eschew sexiness in favour of other qualities when they look for a wife. ‘Men don’t look for very sexy wives, because — at a very basic animal level — they want to be sure the children they are raising are their own,’ explains psychologist Dr Jane McCartney, an expert in human behaviour and relationships. ‘Men are attracted to qualities such as loyalty, discretion and kindness when they look for a wife. Feisty and flirty is fine for a girlfriend. It’s just not what men want in life partners.

Frances says Pippa may well be rueing the day she allowed herself to be photographed being hoisted in the air by her ex-boyfriend Charlie Astor

Just look at feisty, flirty, gorgeous Cameron Diaz. Men fall for her in their droves, yet she always ends up single again. If we believe Molloy’s thesis, Cameron’s just too sexy — on some deep, evolutionary level, the men she dates don’t believe she’ll stick around.

But while men apparently don’t want sexy wives, they do want women who take care of themselves. Molloy found women who are slim and well-groomed with nice hair and nails are prized, although those who wear revealing, attention-grabbing clothes are not.
It all sounds a bit schizophrenic: men want to marry women who are sexy and fit, but not too sexy and fit.
 Another reason women find themselves without a ring on their finger, Molloy says, is that many simply do not push hard enough for it. He found 73 per cent of the wives-to-be he spoke to had forced the issue themselves rather than waiting for a romantic proposal.
 This rings true for Laura Hall. ‘I should have been clear about how much marriage meant to me,’ she says now. ‘I was living with him, doing all the things a wife does, but without a ring on my finger. He could just walk out and in the end that’s exactly what he did.’

While she concedes things had become stale between them, she says it happened precisely because the relationship had lost its momentum — the explicit acknowledgement of commitment that typically leads to engagement, then marriage, then children.

Experts say this is common when couples live together. According to Dr Joel Block, psychologist and author of the book The Real Reasons Men Commit, women need to be wary of serial co-habiters. If a man has had more than one live-in relationship, he is less likely to marry than a man who hasn’t or who is in his first co-habiting relationship.

'Lukewarm': Loudon's parents James and Jane Loudon didn't see Pippa as wife material for their son

If you are with a man who has lived with someone before and you want to get married, you need to say so and stick to your guns early on in the relationship. Make your wishes known. It worked for Gemma Jones, 30, a childminder from Kent. ‘I lived with Mark for a year and then I told him I wanted to get married. He was a bit fazed at first and came out with lines like “it’s only a bit of paper” but I explained that marriage was important to me and to my family, who are Roman Catholics.’

‘Mark agreed to set a date when he understood that I really wanted to get married and that I wouldn’t be happy if the relationship just carried on,’ she explains.
 Research also demonstrates that men prize women who don’t cook and clean for them as a matter of course. As one man in the survey ungallantly put it: ‘No one marries a servant.’ It seems that men are attracted to women who are aware of their own self-worth. But nowadays isn’t co-habiting merely a sensible step to take before vowing to spend the rest of your life together?

Psychologists agree that moving in together is fine — as long as both people are clear about where they think it will lead. ‘Simply put, most men place marriage on a higher level of commitment than just living together,’ explains Block. ‘While women might think that living together is a step towards marriage, many men view it as a way of buying time — or worse, a good option until they find their future wife.

Too sexy? Cameron Diaz dated Justin Timberlake for three years, but ended up single again

John Molloy is equally blunt. ‘The statistics say most men propose after 22 months. For the next three-and-a-half years, the prospects of marriage gradually diminish. After seven years, the likelihood you’ll get married is virtually nil,’ he says. ‘If you want to get married, statistically speaking, you should start to look seriously for a husband at 28.’
Molloy also advises a little lowering of standards. Some women never get married, he says, because they are simply too fussy. Of the women he interviewed who were about to get married, 20 per cent admitted disliking their future husbands when they first met them. ‘Of course, you should have standards, but it sometimes pays to give men a second or even third chance,’ Molloy advises.
 Web designer Nicki Carter from Reading, who at 41 has never been married, worries that now she never will. She ruefully admits: ‘I was probably too picky. I finished with one boyfriend because I thought he wasn’t focused enough on his career. And I finished with another one because I decided he was too possessive.

‘In fact, he was madly in love with me, handsome, funny, well-educated and kind. He wanted to marry me but I wasn’t interested. I always thought I could do better and now I wonder if I was wrong.’Joel Block argues that there is no such thing as perfect. ‘I think that women who are growing older as they search for Mr Right should reconsider. Would finding Mr “Almost Right” be better than a single life?’ he asks. For some it wouldn’t. ‘Some women just don’t want to get married. They aren’t the marrying type,’ Molloy says.

Whether Pippa is or isn’t remains to be seen. Certainly, she will have no shortage of eligible suitors queuing up to replace Alex Loudon and, at 28, she’s hardly left on the shelf. However, she may well be rueing the day that, dressed in that plunging, cleavage-enhancing scarlet dress, she allowed herself to be photographed being hoisted in the air by her ex-boyfriend Charlie Astor on the dance floor at the Boodles ball.

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How To Be More Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) - Forbes

How to be interesting (in 10 stupid-simple steps): (another little article I found to be interesting!  enjoy!)

1.Go exploring.Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where all the boring people hang out.

2. Share what you discover.And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.

3. Do something. Anything.
Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.

4. Embrace your innate weirdness.
No one is normal. Everyone has quirks and insights unique to themselves. Don’t hide these things—they are what make you interesting.

5. Have a cause.
If you don’t give a damn about anything, no one will give a damn about you.

6. Minimize the swagger.
Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.

7. Give it a shot.
Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.

8. Hop off the bandwagon.
If everyone else is doing it, you’re already late to the party.  Do your own thing, and others will hop onto the spiffy wagon you built yourself. Besides, it’s more fun to drive than it is to get pulled around.

9. Grow a pair.Bravery is needed to have contrary opinions and to take unexpected paths. If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy who actually is.

10. Ignore the scolds.
Boring is safe, and you will be told to behave yourself. The scolds could have, would have, should have. But they didn’t. And they resent you for your adventures.

The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness) - Forbes

The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)These six factors can erode the grandest of plans and the noblest of intentions. They can turn visionaries into paper-pushers and wide-eyed dreamers into shivering, weeping balls of regret. Beware!

 1) Availability
We often settle for what’s available, and what’s available isn’t always great. “Because it was there,” is an okay reason to climb a mountain, but not a very good reason to take a job or a free sample at the supermarket.

 2) Ignorance
If we don’t know how to make something great, we simply won’t. If we don’t know that greatness is possible, we won’t bother attempting it. All too often, we literally do not know any better than good enough.

 3) Committees
Nothing destroys a good idea faster than a mandatory consensus. The lowest common denominator is never a high standard.

 4) Comfort
Why pursue greatness when you’ve already got 324 channels and a recliner? Pass the dip and forget about your grand designs.

5) Momentum
If you’ve been doing what you’re doing for years and it’s not-so-great, you are in a rut. Many people refer to these ruts as careers.

6) Passivity

There’s a difference between being agreeable and agreeing to everything. Trust the little internal voice that tells you, “this is a bad idea.”

Getting More Sleep Naturally…For Beauty and Weight-Loss

Here's another little re-blog from my favorite celebrity nutritionist, Kimberly Snyder.  This re-blog was inspired by my sister, Frankela's sleeping problems and her need for valium to regulate them.  :-)  I rarely have trouble sleeping, but my lover does, so hopefully this will help him, as well.  Peace & Love!!!  ~Faunya

 

So as a little reminder, the low-down on sleep is that getting a consistent amount of good sleep makes you LOOK good, FEEL good, and keeps you SLIMMER and your ideal weight. Yay sleep!!

Our bodies are governed by a biological clock, and we rely on it for the regualation of our metabolic processes, such as our hormone levels, blood sugar levels, body temperatures, metabolism, immunity, etc. Faulty sleep patterns could impede surges of growth hormone, that promotes lean muscle tissue and the burning of body fat. Inadequate sleep also forces cortisol levels to rise, which can quicken fat storage, especially around the belly area! So not getting enough rest, unfortunately, can definitely make you fat and look more FLABBY. Eeeek. (Now THERE IS some motivation to cut back on your late night web surfing hmmmmmm??????).

Everything suffers if we don’t get adequate sleep! You’ll feel crabby and sloth-like during the day, and won’t have as much energy to achieve your goals. To help combat the energy slumps you will also be more apt to reach for snacks and more food— even though it is more sleep that you need, NOT more food!

How much sleep do we really need? Well I’m sure you’ve always heard that scientists insist that we need 8 hours of sleep a night. I think that it is more individual than that, depending on our lifestyle and diet. If you are eating mostly raw food you should require less sleep, since you have so much more energy freed up from the processes of digestion. I need about 6 hours of sleep a night to feel amazing and fully energized! Be intuitive with your own sleep patterns and understand your own body to know how much sleep your really need.

Then be responsible for your health and get to bed at the time you need to get those necessary beauty sleep hours!

All of us have trouble falling asleep sometimes- or for some of us it is a chronic problem. We live in such a fast-paced world, with so many sensory elements pulling us this way and that, it is no wonder that it difficult for us to shut everything off at the end of the day and immediately pass out! So we must be conscious of the root causes of our sleep problems and work to correct them- rather than put a bandaid (and an unnatural and liver-harming one at that!) on the issue and resort immediately to the multiple varieties of sleep pills available to us today!!! Sleeping pills should be a very last resort.

Here are some easy, natural sleep tips:

-    Eat dinner 2-4 hours before bedtime. Do your best, and eat as early as is feasible for you. Be sure your dinners are of the best food combining possible (more on that later). As a general rule, avoiding eating complex starches with heavy proteins. We want our digestion to be as easy as possible and not impede our sleep or rest at all!

-    Avoid drinking any caffeine (a stimulant)- even green tea- in the evenings. Remember raw cacao has some caffeine, so if you are having your raw cacao truffles or raw vegan hot chocolate for desert, just be sensible in limiting the amounts and again, have dinner as early as possible.

-    Avoid eating “Rajastic” (stimulating activity) foods at dinner. This would include excessive spicy chilies, lots of garlic and onion, and a large amount of animal flesh foods.

-    A cup of warm almond milk (see Megan’s Almond Milk recipe to make it truly raw or buy the unsweetened kind at the store) before bedtime is very soothing and contains magnesium and calcium, which can be helpful for falling asleep.

-    Try to avoid taking naps after 4:00 PM.

-    Take a hot shower before bed. There is a signal to your body that it is bedtime, created by the rise in body temperature followed by the decline in the core temperature. I take one every night! And I find it immensely helpful. I like to imagine the stream of water also as white light flushing away the stress and other peoples’ energy from the day, off my body and down the drain. It soothes my muscles, which are always sore from yoga and makes me feel fresh and restored.

-    Try to get to establish a (somewhat) consistent pattern of going to bed and waking up around the same time. I know, I know, the weekends are when things go a bit awry in this area, and you deserve to kick back and hang out with your friends or stay up late watching  movies etc on your weekends (!) but like I said, just do your best!

-    Make sure your bedroom is cool- a warmer temperature creates a harder sleep environment. I sleep with my air filter on “turbo mode” which makes a pleasant white sound and produces cool air!

-    Make sure you don’t have any electrical appliances plugged in in in your bedroom. That includes plugged-in alarm clocks, etc. These appliances have subtle radiation currents which can interfere with our body’s natural sleep clocks and REM sleep!  So buy a $10 battery-operated alarm clock instead!

-    Drink a cup of Kava Tea, which is a tea derived from a root from the South Pacific, and has been shown to reduce anxiety. When I was in Fiji, at night and whenever I met some locals, they would always invite me to a cup of Kava. They would put the root in a cloth and use their hands to rub the essence into a bucket of water for over 10 mins., then ladle it out into cups. Of course I tried not to focus on the level of everyone’s hand cleanliness , but it sure did make me feel relaxed! You can get Kava Tea at the health food store with several popular brands.

-    Don’t watch TV in your bedroom or right before you fall asleep. The TV is a lightbox of sounds and images meant to stimulate your senses. How can we be expected to instantly rest peacefully when we have just watched the imagery of all the drama shows they have one, or even worse…the nightly NEWS??? Which is often about doom and gloom and fear-based things and not really peaceful sleep material we want on our mind as we are drifting off!

-    Lastly and most importantly: Be sure to arrange your schedule for a nightly meditation practice. Even more importantly in our busy, busy lives, we need a barrier between the craziness of our days and our sojourn into peaceful sleep. We need some time to reconnect back. Allow yourself at least a few minutes (1/2 hour would be blissful!) to go into meditation. It will make all the difference! If you have no definite technique, do some deep yogic breathing techniques and focus on being still. It will really help you calm down. There are some breathing techniques in my blog, “A Little Discussed Weight Loss Tip.


Happy rest dear ones. ☺
xx Kimberly

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